Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of Crimes Against a Book Club

Sarah and Annie are both in dire need of some extra cash. Annie's son was just diagnosed with autism and will require thousands of dollars of therapy while Sarah is desperate to have a baby and need the excess cash to begin IVF treatments. Combining Annie's brains and Sarah's looks the two concoct a scheme to sell high end beauty cream (laced with "secret" ingredients) the the wealthy women of the La Jolla book club. What could go wrong?

This is a light "beach read" novel with little depth and an okay premise that never went anywhere. I struggled to connect with the characters and thought most of it was over the top and a bit cliché. It is a fast read with a decent pace.

a delightfully entertaining book that is a quick read if you want something fun and easy to read that will keep you engaged and wanting to go on without having to think about anything you are reading about.
Its nothing deep or meaningful but exactly what you expect of this type of book.
Recommend!

Just so much fun - a great cast of oh-so-relatable characters, an intriguing storyline and a fabulously readable writing style. What more could you ask for?

Review: This is an interesting story with a good plot line. The characters are very strong and real and make up the very heart of the story. This is a chick-flick book but not one that centres around a romance. It is funny and full of laugh out loud moments. Friendship is at the heart of this book and shows just how strong females are when things get tough.

My curiosity got the better of me when I requested for this book. The title looks so intriguing I just can’t pass the opportunity to read it. And I’m glad I did because oh, boy, this book is hilarious. I really like the premise of this one. Just light and fun and nothing too dramatic. Of course, the problems and issues every character goes through in the story are serious and some are so relatable but I like how things are address in a humorous way. It is nice to read how some people face their problems and still managed to laugh about it. I kinda admire the way Sarah and Annie deal with their problems, they never lose hope. They used the available tools and the talent that they have.

I especially enjoyed reading not only about Sarah and Annie but also the La Jolla ladies. They are a riot and how they interact with each other is really entertaining to read. They are dealing with their own issues as well, mostly looking younger so that their husbands won’t leave them. It’s crazy to see what those women are willing to do or how much they shed just to look young and beautiful. Hence, the need for the anti-aging cream, Etinav, which is a play on the French word vanité.

The story was told from multiple POVs which can be confusing but I’d say it actually works with this one as it gives an amusing yet somehow realistic perspective on rich people problems. Aside from Annie and Sarah, there are bits of narrative from some ladies of La Jolla, too.

Crimes Against a Book Club is a well-written debut novel, light, witty, funny, and overall, a hilarious and enjoyable read. With strong, interesting female characters dealing with different struggles that most women can relate to. Not only the struggle of looking young, but also of being a wife, a mother, infertility, lack of self-esteem, financial problem and a lot more. And though they are depicted lightly in the story, it doesn’t take away the importance and seriousness of the situations. This book is perfect for chick-lit lovers and those who are in need of a good laugh.

Annie has just joined a prestigious book club in La Jolla, an expensive area of San Diego. But she doesn’t fit in. She has a PhD in Chemistry, while all the other women stay at home all day. Annie’s world comes crashing down when her son is diagnosed with Autism. The doctors recommend that he gets lots of therapy, which would cost $84,000 per year. Though they have a lot of money, Annie’s family can’t afford that price tag. Annie’s best friend Sarah also has some financial problems. She abruptly quit her job as an associate at a law firm. She has been trying to have a baby for years and she has gone through IVF treatment twice but nothing has worked. She wants to try it one more time, but she doesn’t have the money now that she’s unemployed. Annie comes up with an idea to get them both the money they need. They will sell a homemade face cream to the rich women in La Jolla, under the guise of a celebrity doctor. Annie mixes up a special cream to sell for $2,000 a jar. But they both run into trouble when Annie’s secret ingredient is discovered.

This was a really funny book. The premise of selling the face cream was so absurd. But I could see this happening in real life. When a celebrity’s face is associated with a product, it can sell for way more than its worth.

Though the book club isn’t as prominent in the story as I thought it would be, there was a book theme running through the story. Each chapter focused on one character, and it opened with a paragraph about a book they read. It set the stage for what was going to happen to them in that chapter.

There were so many other women in the story that Sarah’s and Annie’s stories got lost in the mix. Though they were still the main characters, some chapters went into detailed subplots about minor characters. I don’t think there needed to be quite as much detail about the women who bought the cream from Sarah.

I recommend this book for some good laughs!

Loved the idea, didn't love the follow through, sadly.

Crimes Against A Book Club by Kathy Cooperman tells the story of Annie, a mother trying to find a way to get money for her sons therapy, Sarah, her best friend and a lawyer that is overworked, trying to concieve through IVF, and Annie's excentric actress mother.

In the upper class city of La Jolla, California Annie and Sarah join a book club filled with wealthy women whose main concern is beauty and the search to find something to look young. Annie decides to create a facial cream with a kick to keep customers coming back. Annie and Sarah sell this cream for two thousand dollars a bottle. The problem, the creams secret ingredient isn't exactly legal, but only Annie knows this.

This was an excellent read. I liked reading about Sarah and Annie's tryst in the beauty world. Annie's mother, Chloe, was entertaining and witty. This story was a great read. There are mentions of books and how they impacted the characters along the way.

I finished Crimes Against a Book Club last week. There were two things I loved about the story- first it showed so many women from the book club (or overall La Jolla area) at different points in their life and marriage. I felt like you can reread this book every 5-10 years and relate to a different character. Secondly, after each chapter, there was a reference to a book and how the character felt about it when she read it. I felt like that added a fun element. Otherwise, the story was a bit ridiculous and definitely just meant to be a fun, fluff book. Ultimately two best friends both come upon financial hardship, one due to her son's expensive autism treatment and the other while trying to pay for expensive fertility treatment. They decide to con the "ladies who lunch" in the area into buying ridiculously expensive face cream. I'll leave it there so I don't give any spoilers.

I enjoyed this humorous fun read about two friends desperately trying to make money so they launch cosmetic fraud against the rich women of their book club. It's very funny, The main characters are relatable and the characters of the rich women as valid trophy wives is spot on. It's a hilarious afternoon read.

Hilarious and a little bit absurd, I really loved this one!

The plot is so very strange but so very novel and engaging. I absolutely adored the way that it unraveled and how all of the elements introduced in the beginning came together quickly. The plot alone could have carried me easily through this book as I was immensely curious to see what would happen.

But the characters added another whole layer to it. They were all strangely lovable, even the ones that I simultaneously disliked. The manner in which everything came together was quite clever. At times, it reminded me of high school drama books but for adults and it definitely had the cliquey prestige that we all love to hate.

The morals of this book were questioning and questionable and immensely fascinating to me. I was highly entertained by the conflict between Annie and Sarah and how their friendship evolved and changed, as well as by the family dynamic that surprised me near the end.

For a light drama and a fun women's fiction read, I recommend this.

Moving to a new place in California, Annie is invited to attend a book club with the rich people of the neighborhood. Here she meets Dawn and the other rich wives around town. During her time in her new town, she learns that her son Oscar has autism and she needs $84,000 to pay for his therapy. When she is out with her friend Sarah, she watches a woman spend thousands of dollars on a face cream. As Annie has a chemistry background, she comes up with an idea to create her face cream. Sarah has been spending thousands on IVF and fertility treatments as well as working long hours as a lawyer. When she decides to quit her job on a whim, she realizes she no longer has the funds to pay for treatments. With her friend Annie creating the products, Sarah with her beauty and background in public speaking she becomes the face of the product. As the product starts to become popular, They'll be rolling in money in no time. The only problem? The "secret ingredient" is ... illegal.
You know what happens next. Everyone wants Etinav, and the cream is a huge success. But as it grows in popularity, eventually, someone finds out that the "secret ingredient" is ... cocaine.
What will happen though when out of spite someone tests the cream and they find out the secret ingredient?
Fans of the TV show Breaking Bad will enjoy Crimes Against a Book Club as I found it was a cross between Breaking Bad meets the Book World.

This book was adorable...as adorable as book about a ring of highly educated women scheming against and positively duping other women could be. Cooperman somehow has the reader pulling for Annie and Sarah, and later Annie's eccentric mother, Chloe, to get away with it. It being a plan to take from the rich (La Jolla's women, obsessed with beauty and youth) and give to the "poor," (Annie and Sarah, both well-off, but not well-off enough to pay for Annie's son's therapies or Sarah's IVF without going into debt).

Sarah is ultimately such a likeable character - beautiful and intelligent, but flawed, down-to-earth, and most of all, kind. I found Annie a bit harder to like - abrasive, self-deprecating to the point of being quite annoying. Colorful Chloe, Annie's actress mother, rounds out the group and provides both frustration and humor.

The chapters dedicated to the ladies of La Jolla are tinged with satire but never fully get there - they are real people and there is a lot of truth in their situations.

Definitely recommend for a light, quick and funny read.

Best friends Annie and Sarah come up with a money-making scheme to sell anti-aging face cream to the wealthy, image-conscious women in Annie’s community. Annie’s young son needs expensive treatment after being diagnosed on the autism spectrum, while Sarah needs to finance another round of IVF. But what product manufacturer Annie, a chemist, doesn’t tell saleswoman extraordinaire Sarah, a lawyer, is that the secret ingredient is a dash of cocaine. Although the book club connection was a stretch, this is a very promising debut from a lawyer, with plenty of tongue-in-cheek humour. Really enjoyed it.

I didn’t know what to expect with this book, but it was laugh out loud funny! I’m really glad that I decided to read it since I was ready for something a little different this week! It definitely deserves 3.5 to 4 stars!

Annie and Sarah have been best friends since they met at Harvard 20 years ago, and they both suddenly need money very, very badly! Sarah seems to have it all—she’s a gorgeous, high-class, redheaded, high-powered lawyer, but all she wants is to have a child of her own, but she and her husband have been unsuccessfully going through fertility treatments for a long time. Yet, the stress of her job finally gets to her, so she dramatically quits, which means she is totally out of money to pay for her IVF treatments!

Annie is a brainiac with a Ph.D. as a chemist and a stay at home mom to her three kids, Maddie, Oscar, and Rachel. Her son has just been diagnosed with autism, and Annie needs money desperately to pay for his treatments—$80,000 a year! There is no way her husband’s job can afford to pay for the treatments, and her return to work is not an option since she needs to be home full time to work with Oscar on his therapy.

This is when the plan gets hatched, and everything about it is so utterly ridiculous and off the wall that it is what makes the book so hysterical!

Annie is the mastermind, and the idea starts after a shopping trip with Sarah where she is shocked to realize the crazy amounts of money the wealthy women of La Jolla will pay for face cream just to look younger and more beautiful to keep their husbands interested. Since Annie is a chemist, she knows she can concoct a face cream that will dupe unsuspecting wealthy women into paying thousands of dollars once they believe they have found the fountain of youth…all she needs is the perfect secret ingredient and the perfect marks for her scam!

It just so happens that Annie met some very wealthy women at a book club she attended a few weeks ago (where she hoped she’d be talking books but spent the night listening to snippy gossip and drinking wine instead) who are the perfect buyers for the cream! Now all Annie needs is someone to sell these women her face cream, a product that she has added a very secret and a very illegal ingredient that she believes will boost the ladies’ confidence and keep them buying more and more! This is where Sarah comes in with her classy, stunning looks that make her appear almost 10 years younger than she actually is!

Sarah begins getting to know the ladies and selling the facial cream, and we get to know more about the book club ladies. They are a fun cast of characters although I didn’t like all of them since a lot of them are just mean, except for Kim who I actually liked more than Annie, who got a little annoying by the middle and end of the book! I thought of high school cliques when I read a lot of the interactions between these grown women and had to roll my eyes! Yet, they were interesting and quirky and added to the plot in an entertaining way!

Crimes Against a Book Club was amusing, and I liked how it explored the long-term friendship between Annie and Sarah, the relationships between husbands and wives, and just how far some women will go to look young and beautiful to keep their husband. Admittedly, I thought the ending was too “pat” and not at all like real life, but it matched the overall ridiculousness of the plot, so I overlooked it.

If you are looking for a light, funny read, Crimes Against a Book Club fits the bill! I read it poolside with a margarita (or two), and I think that or the beach is the perfect place for it to be read! Just don’t be surprised if people look at you funny for laughing at the strangest times!

I want to thank NetGalley, Lake Union Publishing, and Kathy Cooperman for providing me with an ARC of Crimes Against a Book Club to read in exchange for my fair and honest review.

A super funny book!!! Annie and Sarah need cash so they decide to make expensive facial cream and sell it to the rich girls at Annie's book club. It's all going great until Annie adds a secret illegal ingredient! I laughed and laughed while I read this book. This is a great book about best friends and what a girl will do to get what she needs for her family. Thank you to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for an ARC in return for an honest review.

Great book! So many emotions, my husband was wondering why I was yelling at my book the other day =)

Okay... this really isn't much about a book club, but it is a starting point to the story. I do think ladies in a book club would find this book delightful though. They will totally understand the little paragraph's just before each chapter where various book references are made.

So book club ladies.... grab another glass of wine, read this book and have a good chuckle. You will so totally get this! This was a light read, full of wit and humor. Kathy Cooperman created a plot that will leave you shaking your head while chuckling.

Annie was excited to join a book club and discuss literature but was quickly disappointed when she discovered the members of the La Jolla Ladies' Book Club rarely read the book. Instead, they sat around drinking wine, gossiping and flaunting their lavish lifestyles. When Annie's son is diagnosed with autism, Annie finds the cost of the special doctors and programs to help him are well beyond her income. With the help of her best friend, Sarah, they develop a plan to earn some cash. Annie creates a face cream to be marketed as an exclusive product for only certain individuals at a cost of $2,000 per jar. The book club ladies and some of their friends are more than excited to fork over the money. What they don't realize is that Annie added a special ingredient to give some kick to the product. That "kick" came from a bag of cocaine Annie had confiscated from her brother.

One by one, as the ladies use this exclusive face cream, their lives are changed. And when the secret ingredient is discovered, a whole new set of problems develop.

This was a fun book and a great start for summer reading.

Annie, a chemist and Mom is searching for ways to pay for her autistic son's therapy, while her college best friend, Sarah, needs money for IVF. Together they come up with a crazy scheme to sell beauty cream to a select bunch of rich women, by word of mouth. Capitalizing on La Jolla's focus on looks, the duo first approaches their book club, to entice them to buy. A secret ingredient will get them into hot water. Humorous and a good vacation read.

This is a great book with a wonderful story and well developed characters. This book will keep you reading long into the night and you will not want to put this book down until you finish. This was such a great read and full of surprises. I am looking forward to reading the next book by this great author.